What can a 3,000-year-old grave tell us about life during the Shang Dynasty?
In November 2000, archaeologists with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences began preliminary investigations at a site in the central Chinese province of Henan. Using a specialized tool known as the “Luoyang shovel” — an innovation of grave robbers later adopted by archaeologists — they drilled into the hard early winter earth. The object of their search? Relics connected to the ancient Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC) capital of Yinxu, near what is today the city of Anyang.They struck gold almost immediately, pinpointing a tomb that they labeled M54. With temperatures falling, the team eventually decided to postpone the tomb’s excavation until the spring thaw. But by mid-December, word of the find had begun to spread, and grave robbers had begun to circle. Worried the tomb would be looted, the archaeologists on site resolved to push ahead and salvage what they could before it was too late.It took a week to clear away the layers of earth that had accumulated atop the tomb, but what they found was breathtaking in scale: A vast, almost perfectly preserved burial pit containing the remains of a nobleman from the late Shang. Its earthen walls, which were almost 1.8 meters in height, enclosed a central chamber constructed from black-lacquered wood. Inside lay a coffin adorned in crimson lacquer and surrounded by burial offerings, including 15 human sacrifices and 15 sacrificial dogs, as well as an extensive array of goods the man would need in the next world.After 40 days of meticulous excavation, a total of 579 artifacts were unearthed and cataloged. Among the finds were pieces of bronze, jade, pottery, stone, bone, shell, bamboo, ivory, and gold foil. In purely numerical terms, M54 produced the second largest haul of any tomb excavated at Yinxu, behind only the resting place of the famed warrior-queen Fu Hao.In the ensuing years, the excavated artifacts and remains have undergone a painstaking process of cleaning, restoration, and analysis. Together, they offer archaeologists a surprisingly detailed look at what noble life was like during one of China’s earliest, most powerful kingdoms.![]()
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